The present machine relates to fruit pitting machines and especially to a cherry pitting machines adapted to separate unpitted fruit from pitted fruit following a removal of pits from the fruit.
In the past, a great variety of fruit pitting machines have been designed to remove the pits automatically from such fruits as cherries, peaches, olives, and the like. In the typical cherry pitting machine, the fruit is held in an individual cup having an opening in the bottom. One or more rows of fruit are synchonized with a plurality of needles or knife blades shaped to remove the pit from the fruit. The rows of cherries are aligned with the needles which are then thrust through the cherries driving the pits from the cherries. The needles are then retracted and the cherries with the pits removed are dumped into a container for further processing. Machines of this type typically have a small percentage of the cherries left with pits therein, such as when the pits are located to one side of the fruit or the fruit is positioned so that the pit removing needle does not remove the pit. Cherries are then graded according to the number of pits remaining in the final batch of cherries which have been processed through the cherry pitting machines and command higher prices for higher grades. It has been suggested to improve the quality of the cherries being processed by virtually eliminating any cherries having pits in the finished processed cherry products. A typical fruit pitting machine of this type can be seen in the Maytum U.S. Pat. No. 3,817,168 in which a sonic transducer senses the pit being driven from the fruit and generates an electrical signal if a pit is not removed from the piece of fruit which signal then allows an ejector nozzle to blow the unpitted fruit from the conveyor. It has also been suggested in the past to utilize an optical reader to determine whether a pit has been removed from pitted fruit by placing a photo diode or transistor in alignment with a light emitting diode whose beam is in the path of the pits as they pass from the fruit and then eject any fruit in which a signal has not been received by a pit being removed from the fruit.
The present invention relates to a pitting machine in which unpitted fruit is separated utilizing reliable mechanical jaws which actuate pneumatic valves which operate an electrical memory which in turn operate other fluid valves for ejecting unpitted fruit at the appropriate index point.